Volkswagen Andretti rallycross team ready to rumble on the Caribbean island of Barbados for Top Gear Festival

The Volkswagen Andretti rallycross team kicks-off the 2014 Global Rallycross season on the Caribbean island of Barbados at the Bushy Park Circuit on May 17-18 at the Top Gear Festival. As a part of its Americas debut, the Top Gear Festival will feature an impressive lineup of cars, driving talent and factory-backed competition. NBC will air the season opener race on Saturday, May 24 at 1 p.m. EST. Drivers Tanner Foust (shown in a previous event, driving a Ford) and Scott Speed are teammates.

"I cannot wait to get this season started in Barbados. So much work has gone into getting us ready and to this point," said Speed. "The Andretti Autosport team has worked all off-season to have us ready for Barbados, now it's my turn to step up! I'm excited to get out on the track and see what this No. 77 7UP Volkswagen has got."

Speed will be racing the 7UP entry for the Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross team. As well as being a standout in the 2013 GRC Series, winning two races in and finishing fifth overall, Speed has competed at the very pinnacle of motorsports, driving Formula 1 for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2006 and 2007. He also competed in NASCAR between 2008 and 2013.

Speed kicked off his 2013 Global Rallycross season with an X Games Brazil gold medal win . The 31-year-old California native hopes to relive his first Global Rallycross series win with another international victory in Barbados at the newly renovated Bushy Park Circuit.

"We're going to put the Rockstar Energy Drink Volkswagen Polo up against the rest of the cars out there for the first time and I know it's going to be strong," said Tanner Foust. "In the off-season you can only test against yourself and it's hard to get a gauge where it is against the rest of the field."

Foust will open the Red Bull Global Rallycross season in a Volkswagen Polo based on the chassis developed by Marklund Motorsport. The team is working on the brand new Rockstar Energy Drink Volkswagen Beetle, a 560 horsepower turbocharged rallycross car previewed earlier this year at Chicago Auto Show. The new car is expected to debut in competition later this year. The driver, who is also one of the hosts of Top Gear USA will also make appearance for the TV show during the Barbados event.

A week later, Foust will travel to the United Kingdom to make his start in the World RX of Great Britain, he will appear in select rounds of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.